insoluble
[in-sol-yuh-buh l]
adjective
incapable of being dissolved: insoluble salts.
incapable of being solved or explained: an insoluble problem.
RELATED WORDS
baffling, difficult, impenetrable, indecipherable, inexplicable, inextricable, obscure, unaccountable, unfathomable, unresolved, unsolvable, mystifying, irresolvable, unconcluded, unsolved
Nearby words
- insolence,
- insolent,
- insolently,
- insolubility,
- insolubilize,
- insolvable,
- insolvency,
- insolvency provision,
- insolvent,
- insomnia
Origin of insoluble
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for insoluble
insoluble
adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
insoluble
late 14c., "unable to be loosened," from Latin insolubilis "that cannot be loosened," from in- "not" (see in- (1)) + solubilis (see soluble). Figurative use, of problems, etc., is from late 14c.
It was a tacit conviction of the learned during the Middle Ages that no such thing as an insoluble question existed. There might be matters that presented serious difficulties, but if you could lay them before the right man -- some Arab in Spain, for instance, omniscient by reason of studies into the details of which it was better not to inquire -- he would give you a conclusive answer. The real trouble was only to find your man. [Gertrude Bell, "The Desert and the Sown," 1907]
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
insoluble
[ĭn-sŏl′yə-bəl]
adj.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
insoluble
[ĭn-sŏl′yə-bəl]
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.